Post by legios on Nov 4, 2007 21:41:32 GMT
Package Contains:-
One(1) Armorhide tow-equiped tractor unit
One(1) Instruction Leaflet
One (1) Secto Seven “bottlecap”
Before we get to the actual review of the toy I feel I must address Armorhide's one-line bio. According to the back of the package:-
“Although Optimus Prime does not approve, Armorhide uses his own methods to fight for total victory”.
Now, given that Movie Prime's methods of choice when fighting for victory include scads of violence and stabbing his enemies with a shiv about the size of a car I find myself wondering what methods Armorhide – a bloke with a large rifle and a chest full of missiles – could possibly be using that Optimus Prime would not approve of. Harsh language maybe? Anyway,the bio made me laugh.
Armorhide, Truck Mode!:
Armorhide is packaged in truck mode and so we will start here. In vehicle mode Armorhide is a Basic-sized six-wheel tractor unit. However, he isn't designed to haul a trailer, instead he has a large towing arm at the rear suggesting he is a breakdown recovery vehicle meant for hauling away other broken-down trucks. The hook on his towing arm is hinged and can move up and down slighty, the only point of articulation in this mode.
Colourwise Armorhide is mostly black, with three yellow stripes on either side of the cab, yellow detailing on the side of the cab roof and in a small shape just under one of the front cab windows, He also has front fender repeater lights picked out in yellow and a yellow stripe up his towing arm. The read of the vehicle and the wheels are molded in two shades of grey plastic, mostly a fairly dark grey but a small spattering of lighter grey. The wheel arches, fender and radiator grillwork are picked out in silver, as are the windows (with grey plastic frames on the forward window.
The overall effect is a pretty effective colour scheme. Black and yellow isn't a scheme that immediately leaps to mind but it works quite well here. Really the only thing letting it down is the grey colour for the rear of the vehicle. That and the fact that the grey sections on the rear of the cab, that form the feet in robot mode have some very nasty white scarring – like the marks you get removing a plastic kit from the sprue so probably mould-ejector marks. They are unfortunately quite noticeable and do spoil the effect somewhat.
Apart from that Armorhide looks pretty good in this mode. The only caveat is that as a basic-sized truck he does feel rather small and having paid £7 for him I wouldn't have minded if he was a hair bigger.
Armorhide Transform!:-
Unusual transformation this one – a little different to the usual TF truck transformation in that the top of the cab does not become the chest:-
Remove the towing arm and set it aside, you'll need this later seperate the rear sections of the truck and hinge them around on double hinges rotate the dark grey sections around on their ball rounds to put the wheels on the outside, relative to the cab. These form the arms. Pull the top of the cab up so that it folds out at ninety-degrees, becoming the legs, then fold the pelvis out of the cab to bring him up to his full height. Flip the grey sections of the cab around to form feet, turn Armorhide the other way up and fold the head out from the underside of the cab. Peg the towing arm into his hand to serve as his rifle and we are good to go.
Armorhide, Robot Mode!:-
Same predominately black colour scheme with yello and silver trim – upper arms and legs are light grey with the foreamrs and feet being dark grey. The head is black with the face picked out in silver, and the eyes in yellow. Looks rather good in this mode – the black and silver give him a tough, no-nonsense air that suggests he might be from Movie Ironhide's “Blow stuff up till you win” school of thought. The yellow stripe on the top of his gun looks a little odd though – it is a bit close to safety yellow and almost makes it look as if he might be concerned about losing it in the dark.
The fact that the bottom half of the cab becomes the humanoid mode's torso (and that it has to contain the bottlecap feature mechanis means he appears a bit chunky in this mode – perhaps he has been overdoing it on the pints of fuel? But I actually quite like the rather solid appearance of Armorhide. It is a bit different from the somewhat sleeker appearance of many of the Movie toys and makes him look a bit beefier than some basic toys. (Actually I think he justifies his price tag more in this mode than he does in vehicle mode).
Ball-jointed head, hips and elbows, knees bend in the forward and back plane, the shoulders have 36o rotation and can move laterally a very small amount. No waist joint to speak of. Not too bad for a basic – he can sit down, do the splits or a side kick and aim his gun so he isn't doing too badly there.
Armorhide: Special Feature Mode!:
As a repainted Cybertron toy, Armorhide has a bottlecap feature. For this release his bottlecap has been remoulded in solid black plastic with some yellow highlights and a silver Sector Seven logo painted in the middle of it. There is a slot in the middle of Armorhide's back into with the bottlecap slots, this triggers the front of his torse – the fender and grill in vehicle mode – to spring open, revealing a moulded missile battery inside. The missiles are a moulded part of the chest and are picked out in yellow to contrast with the black background. Actually one of my favourite of the bottlecap features from Cybertron (I wasn't a huge fan of most of them to be honest), it is unobtrusive and doesn't compromise the toy too much.
Overall: Nice humanoid mode with an attractive colour scheme, decent bottlecap feature that doesn't impact too badly on the rest of the toy and a decent enough vehicle mode. The only real downside is that he feels a bit small in vehicle mode, and has some obvious production scarring. A pretty nice little toy, a repaint of one of the few Cybertron toys I regret I didn't ever see at retail. Worth my seven earth pounds I feel.
Karl
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